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Mid-Term Elections — Ignoring the Chaff

As the mid-term elections approach one might be tempted to feel some sympathy for the hapless Democrats as they sit frozen at the controls, wiping flop-sweat off their brows and fighting the growing panic that comes with realizing the high-pitched whine they keep hearing is actually a missile-lock warning. Anyone who appreciates the stakes involved doesn’t dwell on this very long however, and certainly doesn’t let it deter him from the important work of hacking them out of the sky.

This is particularly important now because they haven’t given up (because — and I may get some coasters inscribed with this — they never give up). With election day (or in Democrat parlance “impact”) fast approaching, and no discernible weapons to bring to bear – certainly not the record they don’t dare run on, or a president they don’t dare refer to – their only remaining option is to fill the air with flares and tinfoil. This is what you do when a big can of whoop-ass is headed your way and you have no way of stopping it – throw up lots of chaff and hope the weapon prefers Reynolds Wrap to you.

Accordingly, despite the fact the Democrats have outspent the Republicans in this election, and in the face of confirmed accounts of blatantcampaignfinancingirregularities of their own in 2008, the Democrats have filled the airwaves with wholly unsubstantiated charges that the Republicans and their corporate confederates (like the thoroughly demonic Chamber of Commerce) are siphoning anonymous foreign donations into the campaign.

When challenged to provide evidence, the most compelling argument they can bring to bear—and one can only speculate how much midnight oil they burned on this one—is “well, do you have any evidence that it is not?”

(I must remember this line of reasoning when next trying to convince my bank manager that I am the actually the great grandson of Tsar Nicholas II and worth a bazillion rubles once we get the paperwork sorted out.)

On a smaller scale, but perhaps more perfectly in keeping with a diversionary cloud expelled from the rear, we have Alan Grayson, soon to be former congressman from Florida, whose depiction of opponent Daniel Webster as “Taliban Dan” amounted to an outright forgery – albeit with the relative sophistication of a hand-drawn five dollar bill. Rep. Grayson seems to have forgotten, while cutting and pasting video clips together (kind of like letters in a ransom note, which for all I know was his Plan B — do you have any evidence that I am wrong?) that this wasn’t 1961, there is an Internet and people had the means to check out the original.